I first applied to Avanade via online resume drop (aka a black hole with most employers). I was lucky because some corporate recruiter thought that I was somehow connected in the IT industry, so he got in touch in November 2011 asking me if I knew anyone who might be interested in a job with Avanade. I told him I didn't and explained my situation (a couple years out of college, but still looking for my first full-time job). He immediately referred me to a recruiter (Lisa), with whom I dealt for the rest of my recruiting process.
I first set up a phone interview/screening with Lisa, and after a couple reschedulings, we had it and she was impressed so she moved me on. At that point we discussed which service line I'd like to be a part of, and we decided on CRM. She then arranged a technical phone interview with a director in the CRM service line, which I finally had after a couple reschedulings as well. This interview did not end up being technical at all,l but this guy was impressed with me, and told Lisa so. (Each time I spoke with Lisa after an interview, she always liked to ask how I thought the interview went before telling me the feedback; maybe she only does this when feedback is positive.) In December, Lisa talked to me about setting up an in-person interview with a director, but I was travelling, and then the interviewer's schedule changed, so that never happened. In January, Lisa got in touch and told me that CRM no longer had any open positions, but they were interested in moving me along with another service line. We discussed, and agreed on BI. She then set up another technical interview with a director. When I actually had the call, it ended up not being with the person I expected, but no big deal. This interview was, indeed, a bit technical, but nothing crazy. He just asked me questions about how I would deal with different situations that a BA might encounter. He moved me along, and Lisa asked me to come into the Chicago office for a final round interview on a Friday.
On the interview day, I realized that I was interviewing for a recent-grad program, but no big deal. I was with about 10 other candidates. They put us in a conference room with some breakfast and some current Avanade employees (somewhat recent hires). Then they gave us a presentation, and then we had about 4 hours in which each person had two half-hour interviews, and the rest was down time to talk to the current employees, and also work on a low-pressure writing assignment (something like "why is Avanade a good fit for your career"). Then we had lunch and an HR presentation. This was followed by a low-key group activity in which they observed how we worked. I won't tell you what exactly the activity was, but it was pretty fun, and not hard.
By that time, I had received a competing offer from another company, and I told my recruiter about it. She must have really hurried the decision process because by the following Wednesday, I had an offer. She asked for my answer by the next day. I asked for the weekend, but the most she could give me was Friday (because of an upcoming start-date and the paperwork that had to be processed in time). It was a hard decision process, and Avanade was extremely appealing, but I decided to decline the offer and the accept the competing offer. I will definitely keep Avanade in mind as my career progresses. Lisa (my recruiter) was extremely professional and very nice, and gave me an overall great experience with the company.